Tinea Capitis and Superficial Fungal Infection – Board-Style Questions

What this deck covers

Tinea capitis in 18 board-style clinical cases with worked explanations. Each case gives you a clinical vignette, four options, the correct answer, and an explanation of why each of the other three is wrong, with the guideline or textbook it follows named on the answer.

Board-style teaching questions for paediatricians and trainees preparing for paediatric board, MRCPCH and licensing examinations. Written from published guidelines and standard paediatric textbooks, with the source named on every answer.

The 18 cases, in order

1. A bald patch with scale
2. Before the tablets start
3. A dark room test
4. Cream has not worked
5. A boggy swelling
6. Will the hair come back
7. The rash lost its edge
8. The rest of the family
9. Where it came from
10. Which tablet for this one
11. The other organism
12. Do not cut into it
13. One pillow, four girls
14. How long the tablets run
15. A ring on the arm
16. Itchy toes in trainers
17. Thickened yellow nails
18. A rash on the hands

Diagnoses and management options tested

Across the 18 cases you are asked to choose between options such as: Alopecia areata, in which the skin looks entirely normal, Hairs and scale sent for microscopy and culture, The absence of any glow proves that the cause is not fungal, It was applied for far too short a period of time, A kerion, an inflammatory mass that can destroy follicles, Hair always regrows fully whatever the skin looks like, The original diagnosis of eczema was entirely correct, Treat every member of the household with tablets at once, The kitten, carrying a species that infects animals too, A single dose of an antifungal given at the clinic today, A four-week course of an oral antihistamine each night, Drain it today and stop the antifungal straight afterwards, Stopping the sharing of brushes, bands and pillows, For seven days, which is enough once the scalp looks well.

Clinical pearls from this deck

• Broken hairs, scale and a node: tinea capitis.
• Confirm the fungus before a long course of tablets.
• A dark lamp does not exclude a scalp fungus.
• Scalp fungus lives in the shaft: creams cannot reach.
• A boggy pus-filled scalp mass is a kerion.
• Smooth shiny scalp means the follicles are gone.

Work through the deck once for recognition, then again a week later to test yourself — each question gives the answer and explains why every other option fails.

More from this system: all dermatology case decks · pediatric reference values.